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Cooking creatively for picky eaters

I've recently declared my emancipation from cooking increasingly boring colonialist-based foods. The endless parade of stew with dumplings, pot roasts, Yorkshire puddings and biscuits has me bored to tears, and I really love to cook. It's been years since I've made West African yam and peanut soup, borscht, biriyani, etc. So I have vowed to cook at least one meal per week that is what my family might call exotic. My husband has a few dislikes but is essentially an organic garberator. My youngest would be happy on a diet of PB&Js, Mac and cheese, and fish and chips. Last week I started off with east Asian cooking, combining Thai favourites with Chinese dumplings and won ton soup. Apart from a request to ease up on the napa cabbage (flatulence-inducing), the food was greeted with enthusiasm - even by my picky eater. Next stop, African and Carribean (neither of which I've cooked in a decade or more). Any of you out there have a hard time feeding people creatively?

Comments

I've been hooked on Iranian food for years. A little saffron goes a long way in many dishes, the wide variety of stews, and there's a particular stew made with pulled chicken, simmered in a pomegranate reduction sauce and poured over basmati rice with a little crunch at the bottom of the rice cooker for added texture.

Oh man, I'm drooling. Pomegranate reduction sauce? Saffron and pulled chicken? I must try that!
Did you know that saffron was as valuable as gold at one point? A brick of it could buy half a kingdom, or as many mercenaries it would take to conquer one.

Turmeric is a poor substitute for saffron, but it's probably the closest, if you can't afford saffron.
When you think of it, the harvesting of crocus stigmas is so labour-intensive, it's no wonder it's so expensive. I've cooked a number of dishes that ask for saffron and have done without it or any substitute and the result is still very good.

I am lucky that none of my family are picky eaters. I concentrate on good fresh local ingredients first and it has been my experience that most things turn out well. I found that to be a winning formula when it was just me and my boys.

Now that I am married again and my boys have moved out I cook all the week day meals but on weekends when my wife wants to cook I turn the kitchen over to her since she has the cooks training in our house. The coop we live in is very multicultural so we have gotten a fair number of South Asian recipes and yes there is nothing like saffron.

Heh. The only picky eater in my household is fifteen months old. Just a matter of weeks ago he would eat literally anything we put in front of him. Now all the hits of yesteryear lie squandered and abused in tragic smears across skin and highchair. If it's not some combination of toast, peanut butter and cream cheese--no thank you, we're not interested.

Saffron tastes nothing like turmeric (which I find quite bitter - I take pills containing it) Saffron is wonderful.
Boom Boom, hard to believe you've never tasted saffron, living in Ottawa. Silk Roads? Or was that after your time?

Yeah, I've never understood substituting turmeric for saffron either. They are completely different taste-wise. And yet, as Rebecca says, it's often recommended as a poor but closest substitute. I'm assuming the replacement is made for the colour, not for the taste.

I think it's time for me to cook Afro-Caribbean dishes again. My faves: yam and peanut soup, rice and peas, fried plantain, jerk anything-that's-no-longer-moving (or mooing, for that matter). After that, maybe Indo-Caribbean. There's no such thing as 'too much curry and chutney'.

When we were in Tobago, there was a little restaurant that had goat curry as the special one night, so we all tried it. My gods, was it good! I've managed to replicate it somewhat at home. We even fount stewing goat at Superstore. Mmmmmm. Rice and fried plantain on the side.

I was trying to expand my cooking horizons by finding videos on YouTube on how to poach an egg. I've never done it before. Anyhow, after watching a few videos (and I think I get the idea - just have to practice now), I ran across this amazing video of a breakfast preparation at a Japanese restaurant in Hiroshima. I have no idea what all of the ingredients are, but it sure looks good! Looks like one of those things could feed four people, though... :)

I've been cooking poached eggs for almost 60 years - it's easy. Boil water, then slowly drop the egg into the water. When cooked, remove egg from water. I don't care for them much, though, because you get a watery plate.

I have to say, the poached egg I made for myself this morning was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. What did we ever do before YouTube? I did it with just a pot filled with water with a touch of salt and vinegar, and a slotted spoon, and it worked very nicely.

I've been home recovering from surgery for the past little while (I have a few more weeks to go) and I can finally eat some interesting food again. And I have time to play in the kitchen here and there between resting. So I'm looking forward to getting a little more creative in the kitchen myself.

An egg poacher does not poach eggs. It steams them. The only way to poach is to crack the egg in the water. I use Michelle's technique, although occasionally I use the French whirlpool instead. I love poached eggs: if I'm not benedicting them up as a treat, I just put them on toast or a bagel with a bit of salt, pepper and paprika. A delicious, simple and healthy breakfast!

I'm not sure what you mean by a "French whirlpool," Catchfire, but I did use the whirlpool technique of swirling the hot water in a circle before slipping the egg into the water. It worked nicely. But some of the videos I saw showed people poaching without bothering to swirl the water in a circle first and they seemed to work okay too.

I made coconut pudding for dessert tonight. It's basically a blancmange with some coconut milk substituted for part of the milk, a splash of vanilla for fun. It's one of Ms T's favourites. Served warm!